AFDO Conference

The AFDO conference has now been scheduled for May 28 to 29 2009. The program promises to be full of interesting debate and discussion and will use as a springboard the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It will look at how we get from Nothing About Us without Us to In Control. The Hotel Jasper has now been booked, conference organisers appointed and a conference committee is regularly meeting. If you would like any up to date information about our conference please call Brenda at AFDO.

Board Update from the Chair: Graham Douglas-Meyer

The most recent board meeting was held on Friday 5 and Saturday 6 of December. The meeting was well attended and ran smoothly; it was amazing to look back and see how much we had covered over the two days. A new and most beneficial technology in the form of Real-Time Captioning provided a great learning experience for the board. Some of the agenda items addressed included:

• a revision of the business plan to cater for the next six – eighteen months;
• the financial report indicated that AFDO is certainly capable to meet its financial responsibilities at this time.
• A discussion around external representation of the AFDO has prompted the need to conduct an audit of those committees and other forms of representation. The audit will report to the next board meeting.
• AFDO Conference: the decision to go ahead with a conference in 2009 was made. The discussion came to an understanding of the importance of the UN Disability convention. The conference committee has since informed the board and the members that the conference will be held on 29 and 30 May 2009 at the Jasper Hotel, Melbourne. We encourage all of our member organisations to have as many of their members attend this inaugural event.
• AFDO will take up membership of both the Disability Advocacy Network Association and In Control. The ability of each of these groups to address the growing needs of people with disabilities can only be enhanced by working together.
• Board departures over the past few years as well as the inability of individuals to continue on the board has raised the need to amend the AFDO constitution to preserve the intellectual and corporate investment in the board to the benefit of the organisation..
• A Special General meeting will be convened at our next members meeting to address the constitutional amendment which will be distributed early in the New Year.

• The board instructed Lesley Hall to form a selection committee to search for and employ a new National Policy officer as we had received the resignation of Collette O’Neil who had faithfully filled the position for the past 4 years.
• The Board expressed its sincere thanks to Brenda Lacey for her dedication and strength through what has proven to be a difficult time for the organisation while the executive and the rest of the board ran the office often by remote control while we went through the process to replace the CEO, while also bringing our temporary policy officer Niki Sheldon up to speed.

At this time of the year, while families around the globe come together for a combination of reasons. May I offer, first of all my thanks to my fellow executive and also the members of the board. Secondly, and most importantly, may I also thank our member organisations, their staff and families for the time they put into their support of the AFDO.

May I extend to you all, my wish for peace and prosperity for the coming year and a successful 2009 for one and all. GDM

Development & Disability Conference

On September 29 & 30, a Disability and Development Conference was held in Canberra. Recently AFDO appointed David Webb and Samantha French to be our international representatives. Below is their report on the conference.

David Webb
Overall – a great conference

Titled “Disability, Disadvantage and Development in the Pacific and Asia”, the aim of the conference was to bring together people from the Asia Pacific region to highlight disability as a core issue for development projects in the region. In this regard, I think everyone who attended would agree that the conference was a huge success.

Main highlight – many People With Disabilities from all over the region.

The first highlight to mention is the large number of people at the conference from countries around the region in attendance, and in particular the significant proportion of these who were people with disabilities. It was very pleasing to feel almost in the minority as a white-anglo-male.

The Rights Based Approach

A feature of the conference that pervaded virtually all presentations was the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD – the Convention). Not surprisingly, there was a sense of celebration about this great milestone for People with Disabilities, though this was regularly tempered by comments on the work that is now required to ensure that the Convention is implemented. But the paradigm shift that the Convention signals was clearly evident – and welcomed – at this conference.

Hand in hand with the Convention was the frequent observation that a rights based approach – which now enjoys acronym status as RBA (goodbye Reserve Bank of Australia) – must now always be applied to any and all projects, programs or services that affect people with disabilities. This includes, of course, the development programs, projects and services that were the focus of this conference. The rights based approach was clearly unanimously endorsed by the conference, though it was pointed out that work needs to done to clarify precisely what this means on the ground in practice and also to communicate this key feature of the Convention to all concerned.

AusAID

Another feature throughout much of the conference was the presence of AusAID, including the launch of a draft of their disability strategy following the consultations earlier in the year. Titled “Development For All – A Disability Strategy for the Australian Aid Program 2009-2014”, it is expected to be finalised by the end of the year. It was said that after many years of resisting a formal disability strategy, AusAID now has clear direction from the Australian government to prioritise disability. This was reinforced by the presence and the words of Bob McMullen, the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance (and therefore the “boss” of AusAID), who spoke in the opening session.

Bill Shorten, the Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children’s Services, was also in attendance so it was further pointed out that for the first time in Australia’s history we will soon have both a national and an international disability strategy. Although I have concerns with some of the details in both these strategies (see below), I do believe the government is genuine in its commitment to disability issues, though much remains to be done to see the aims realised on the ground.

A final general comment – it was a development conference

It was necessary for me to remind myself from time to time during the conference that is was a conference organised by development agencies that are inevitably focused on issues in developing countries. On this occasion, the specific issue was disability.

This prompted me several times to recall the words of Gerard Quinn, the eminent Irish international lawyer with a special interest in the Convention, who in a speech in Mexico last year stated that “we are all developing countries when it comes to disability”.

At times this development perspective made me somewhat uncomfortable as I felt that the human rights issues of people with disability in developed countries were not quite seen as the same human rights struggle that we are fighting here. There was an emphasis at this conference, quite appropriately, on the vicious cycle between disability and poverty that is perhaps especially severe in developing countries. I was once told by a prominent Australian disability advocate that what the Convention was really about was to help bring disability rights in the developing world up to the standard of countries like Australia. This comment alarmed me greatly at the time so I guess I felt some uneasiness that there may have occasionally been a little of this attitude in the room at this conference.

Samantha French
The following is a summary of key themes raised throughout the conference and highlighted by the Roundtable participants.

• A twin-track approach is required to address disadvantage– need to use a twin-track approach and mainstreaming disability doesn’t negate the need for disability-specific strategies.
• Need to use a social model of disability – address the barriers that exist in our communities for people with disability – social, economic and physical barriers.
  Integral links between poverty and disability needs to be addressed – the economic participation and contribution of people with disability cannot be underestimated in this respect.

• Valued work of Disabled Peoples Organisations – importance of developing accountability, responsibility, cooperation and leadership.
• Important role of education and awareness-raising
• Empowering women with disability and ensuring their equal opportunity of participation - need to address the specific boundaries that women with disability face.
• Needs to be a collaborative effort of a diverse range of stakeholders
• Partnerships and ensuring sustainability of those partnerships.
• Two way communication and shared leadership are essential elements to any aid programs if they are to be disability inclusive.
• Importance of international cooperation for capacity-building, disability inclusive development, facilitating cooperative research and for providing appropriate technical and economic support.
• Focus needs to be on creating a barrier-free and rights-based society.
• Need to identify ‘disability champions’.
• Crucial to provide the adjustments and accommodations required for full participation.
• Identify creative approaches and strengthen capacity of Disabled Peoples Organisations.
• Inclusion of people with disability is not just about people with disability sharing in the benefits of development, it is also about people with disability contributing to the development of their countries.
• The Convention is both a development and a human rights (or bill of rights) instrument – it provides both a framework for standards and political legitimacy - it is, therefore, necessary to ensure a disability strategy makes reference to, and incorporates the principles of both the Convention on the Rights of Persons with
• Disabilities and Biwako Millennium Framework.

• In regards to prevention, disability is not only a health issue it is also an economic, social and developmental issue.

The Rights-Based Approach was summarised as:

P - Participation
A – Accountability
N – Non-discrimination and equality
E - Empowerment
L – Legal framework
S - Sustainability

Policy and Action Roundtable

Roundtable participants’ perceptions of highlights of conference included:

• How very exciting was to see an increased and renewed commitment from the Australian Government to develop a disability-inclusive development strategy.
• There was also recognition of the important role of Disabled Persons Organisations and the need to develop leadership and build capacity to ensure real participation.
• The Australian Government needs to address issues for Indigenous Australians when developing any strategy on disability-inclusive development.
• The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Biwako Millennium Framework are effective advocacy and educational tools that need to be incorporated into policies and strategies for disability inclusive development.
• The education and employment opportunities of people with disability are pivotal to sustainable economic development and we need to look beyond provision of aid to developing capacity within the community to ensure equal employment opportunities and genuine participation of people with disability in the labour market and broader economic development. It is also important to remember the engagement of all stakeholders in development, including employers.
• The Disability Strategy needs to be consistent with and reinforce the principles of the Convention and Biwako Millennium Framework.

Areas for action specifically identified by Australia:

• Capacity-building of Indigenous Non Government Organisations
  Look at ways to strengthen the Aboriginal Disability Network (ADN) and partnerships with Disabled Peoples Organisations.

• Look at creative strategies to show leadership in education and employment.
• Look at the most effective strategies for utilising the Australian Human Rights Commission as many other Nation States in the Asia Pacific region don’t have a national human rights institution.
• Any approach needs to incorporate the diversity within the disability community and be cross-disability.
• There are major issues for rural and remote communities which need to be addressed.
• The importance of showcasing successful programs, strategies and policies and highlight the importance of networking.

Meeting Dates

Member Meetings:
February 17th & 18th 2009
August 28th & 29th

Board Meetings:
March 20th & 21st
June 19th & 20th

AFDO Conference:
May 28th & 29th

New Board

On October 10th we held our AGM. The AFDO Board is now made up of:

Chair: Graham Douglas-Meyer
Deputy Chair: Samantha Jenkinson
Deputy Chair: Teresa Chu
Treasurer: Frank Hall-Bentick
Sue Egan
Heather Forsyth
Dean Barton-Smith
Nick Rushworth
Liz Evans
Frank Nolan

Click here to download a word document version of the 2007-2008 Annual Report.

Report from Niki Sheldon Policy Officer

In my short time with AFDO I have spent most of my time consulting with members about what we should say to the Federal Government about the Pension Review. It was a fascinating piece of work to do. The submission has now been sent off and thanks again for every ones input and support in its writing. I really do think that the AFDO’s call for an allowance to cover our extra costs of disability has been heard. The Pension Review Report will test this.

Since beginning work here at AFDO I have attended meetings about : the strategy promoting the employment of people with disabilities and the future of the Disability Employment Services, the needs of carers, the future of reference groups for Centrelink, an initial meeting with two members of the Social Inclusion Board, senior government officers about disability employment services, the social compact and research options for the Fair Pay Commission.

I am currently involved in developing AFDO submissions to government in response to: the Discussion paper on the Future of Disability Employment Services in Australia, the proposed legislative amendments to the Disability Discrimination Act and analysing AFDO members’ submissions on the National Disability Strategy in preparation to write our own submission.

I would like to thank AFDO for this unique opportunity of working with you all and to say how challenging and thought provoking the experience has been. I really do believe that new Federal Government is determined to listen to people with disabilities and we now have an opportunity to put lots of positive proposals and ideas to them. It’s now up to organisations like AFDO to develop some new and fantastic projects which will lead and show people where the services and systems can and should go.